Assert that element does not exists with FindById notation

Question

I'm writing tests for a system that shows a Popup on the first login but doesn't on the subsequent logins.

Currently my code is something like this:

PopupPage

class PopupPage extends BasePage {
  @FindById(id="closeBtn")
  private WebElement closeButton;

  public boolean isDisplayed(){
    //Throws an error when the popup isn't displayed because the popup isn't in the DOM.
    return closeButton.isDisplayed();       
   }
}

This is very similar to this question, but I don't want to repeat the selector that is already present in the FindById notation.

So how do I assert that the element is on page or not ? (Ideally I would like to have some method coming from the WebElement like closeButton.isStale() or something like this.

Answer 1

In a page object model, all defined elements are initialized to null using the pagefactory.

If an element does not exist in the DOM, then it will remain null when you refer to it.

Therefore, simply check your element for a null value.

/**
 * Is the element displayed?
 * @author Bill Hileman
 * @param element - a web element
 * @param locator - a verbal description of the element for logging purposes
 * @return Boolean true if displayed, false if not displayed or null
 */
public Boolean isDisplayed(WebElement element, String locator) {

    Boolean passFail = false;

    try {
        if (element.isDisplayed())
            passFail = true;
    } catch (NullPointerException | NoSuchElementException e) {
        System.err.println("Unable to locate element '" + locator + "'");
    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.err.println("Unable to check display status of element '" + locator + "'");
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return passFail;

}

Answer 2

The method I use is to use findElements() and check the .size(); zero means gone, any positive number means it's still there.

Also, programming is all about not repeating yourself, so make the selector a variable :)

String idOfThing = "closeBtn";
@FindBy(id = idOfThing)
private WebElement closeButton;

if (!doesItExistById(idOfThing)) {
    System.out.println("It vanished!");
}

public boolean doesItExistById(String id) {
    return driver.findElements(By.id(id)).size() > 0;
}

Answer 3

Python has find_elements() group of methods which:

• do not wait
• return a matching list, which is empty if no matching elements are found

Please note is is elements. I assume Java has similar methods.

isDisplayed() can be used only on a valid located element, it will fail if element is not present.

This approach has additional benefit that you can check for a presence/absence of multiple elements (or elements with no unique locators, like error messages) which might have a name or CSS class but no known unique id.